Huaifu Naotang Braised Donkey Meat 怀府闹汤驴肉

Huaifu Naotang Braised Donkey Meat (怀府闹汤驴肉) is donkey meat braised in an old spiced stock, a craft of Qinyang (沁阳) in Jiaozuo (焦作) that Henan lists as provincial intangible cultural heritage.

Where the name comes from

Huaifu (怀府) stands for Huaiqing Prefecture (怀庆府), which the Ming and Qing dynasties set up at Qinyang. Naotang (闹汤), roughly "lively broth", names the cooking: a rolling boil over high heat followed by simmering over low heat (“大火滚、小火熬”), which Henan's intangible-heritage protection centre (河南省非遗保护和智慧化中心) likens to children romping noisily at the New Year.

Henan added the Qinyang craft of Huaifu naotang donkey meat to its provincial list of representative intangible cultural heritage in 2009. A naotang donkey-meat craft from Jiefang District (解放区) of Jiaozuo followed on the same list in 2011.

How it is made

The heritage centre sets out three points of the craft. The meat comes from donkeys of the northern Henan plain (豫北平原驴), which it describes as fine-grained and nourishing, and the animals chosen are five to eight years old, for flavour and good texture.

The seasoning is more than ten spices, added by a secret method to what the centre calls a hundred-year-old stock (百年老汤), which gives the meat a salty, fragrant and savoury taste. The heat follows the high-boil, low-simmer rhythm of the name, and the braised meat comes out soft and tender without losing its shape.